MINNEAPOLIS — If the weather doesn’t have you thinking of our next seasons, perhaps the push to plan for summer camps does.
And this year, families in Minnesota have a new tool to help navigate the increasingly complicated puzzle of summer camp schedules.
“We are called My Happy Camper, and so we are a web-based tool that allows families to discover the right camps for their kids based on their age and their interests,” said Aneela Idnani who co-founded My Happy Camper with the same person she co-founded a family, her husband Sameer Kumar.
“We have two sweet kiddos who love to do summer camps,” Idnani said, adding that the family often became overwhelmed by trying to map out options that accounted for both their kids’ interests and the schedules of their kids’ friends.
“Kids don’t like being the new kid in school every week during the summer. So that was one of the pain points we were trying to help with,” Kumar noted.
As a result, My Happy Camper considers the child’s age, interests and the family’s schedule before going one step further: the site’s interactive calendar allows families to coordinate their schedules with other families.
“You can invite as many friends as you want, as many parents,” Kumar demonstrated within the website.
“That’s what’s missing in our culture today. We’re so individualistic. We want to break those walls. That’s why it’s build your village one Happy Camper at a time,” Idnani added.
‘There absolutely is something’
Meantime, My Happy Camper isn’t the only entity preparing families for the summer camp push.
“Our registration opens February 25th, which seems really crazy that it’s that soon. But we have other parents who are knocking on our door on January 1st, ‘Where’s the brochure? Where’s the listing? I’m like give it time, it’s coming, don’t worry,’” said Dave Premack, coordinator of the Southwest Super Summer Program which is part of the summer offerings of Minneapolis Community Education.
Premack believes recent history has influenced how early and often families reach out with summer camp concerns, requests and questions.
“I think the demand has increased and certainly coming out of COVID and people wanting to just do things and have things planned,” he said.
But Premack also reminds families they have a plethora of options for summer activities: from community education classes – some of which are on a sliding fee scale or free – to private camps appealing to all interests and budgets.
“There absolutely is something, probably like five things or 10 things for everyone,” Premack said.
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